I recently got obsessed with a game that could have come from an MBA Operations class simulator. The premise is simple enough - manage cash flow, manufacturing, and supply chain to provide enough paper clips to meet demand. Along the way, you start using artificial intelligence to automate some tasks. The problem becomes, the more tasks you delegate to the AI to make manufacturing easier, the faster you bring about the downfall of humanity.

Now, in the back of my mind, I'm looking at the model's projections on marketing paper clips and the influence of AI on generating demand and saying, "there's no way this is possible." Then, I read Connie's amazing article this week on how we are linking up marketing automation and customer insights... it makes you wonder whether a super-marketer will someday doom us to having an over-supply of paperclips and an AI overlord. The good news is that the AI will be benevolent and solve climate change, create world peace, and cure male pattern baldness.

Would you doom humanity to sell a few more paper clips? Check out the game here: http://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/ Either way, brave reader, read on.

Connie Tran explores what happens when customer insights and marketing automation are paired together. If you consistently feed your marketing automation software campaigns with customer insights, the software will be able to continue learning about each customer, long after you've done your part. In a sense, you can program your marketing automation software to build its own marketing campaigns based on what it has learned about each person's behaviors, without any input from you.

What we're up to

Ethan Creasman joins Trig! We are excited to announce that Ethan Creasman has joined Trig as an industrial designer. Ethan brings a wealth of experience to the team from his work in laptop and server design, furniture, home improvement, lighting, and UX app design.

Trig is Hiring! We are looking for an industrial designer to join our growing team. If you are a confident self-starter who takes pride in the body of work that you have accomplished, but are seeking the next challenge to grow and refine your skills, we want to talk to you. See the job description here

Guest Post: Michael Hiller

What we're exploring

Terminal Velocity of a T-Rex This is a great thought experiment to challenge young designers and engineers. How would you go about calculating the fastest speed at which a Tyrannosaurus Rex could fall? We asked Quora recently and the response seems to have gone viral.

Trig® is a full-service industrial design and innovation firm with services including insights + ideation, product design, and brand asset management. Trig® serves start-ups, mid-sized, and Fortune 500 companies across the United States. Based in Chapel Hill, the Trig® team can be found in Charlotte, Raleigh, and Richmond, Virginia.